A: Our project is a multimedia documentary about 100 participants
in a Deliberative Poll.

Q: How will people be picked?

A: The participants will be chosen to reflect the makeup of
the US electorate, and gathered through a polling organization such as Knowledge
Networks.The pool supplied by the polling organization will be of a census-mix
of people who are interested and available. We will do the final casting ourselves
within this group.

One of the features of our project, lacking in previous polls,
is we can simultaneously present the participants with the chance to achieve
some level of public recognition as individuals. Typically polls get a very
weak response from young people (they are too busy going on dates) and a heavy
response from old people (they are lonely and sit by the phone). The pollsters
know this in advance and weight the responses accordingly. We have a built-in
'reality tv' aspect, which may enhance response rates and cooperation among
younger people.

Once selected we supply each participant with a Mac or PC, a
webcam, and broadband (a cable modem) and install video chat software allowing
each participant to host six 'buddies' in video online chat. See GlowPoint
for an example of commercially available desktop videoconferencing and collaboration.

Each group would be six participants and one moderator. For
example, looking at my screen, I'd have five 'buddies' that are fellow participants,
and one group moderator. Each group would reflect the diversity of the overall
group of 100. If I went online with my group, I might be talking to someone
from Texas, someone from Florida, maybe Nevada, Washington, another East Coaster
perhaps. And a moderator.

Q: How many groups will there be?

A: 16 groups of 6 each would make 96. It seems worthwhile to
have an even 100, so we could make a couple of groups larger as our software
permits.

By comparison, the Stanford online poll consisted of 26 groups
of ten (and a moderator for each). Ten people seems like a lot of people to
have on an audio connection at the same time -- like a very big conference
call. For details about this process you can play the audio link to a talk
on the Stanford Political Communication Lab website: Creating
Deliberative Democracy Online: Deliberative Polling and its Implications.

Each participant will get a stipend of $ 50 a week for four
hours of participation. The weekly participation would include the one hour
group discussion, and three hours to read, listen or watch the briefing materials
(news sources) for upcoming dialogue. Also each person will keep a personal
photo blog. As the project develops, we will send a mini-documentary team
to each participant and begin to build elements for television by following
them through their daily lives. And also see how the process of talking to
other Americans looks from their side, out in an Iowa cornfield.

Most of America is no longer as photogenic as a cornfield, but
we expect this side of the project will be endlessly fascinating. Life as
it is lived. And yet linked. The question at the heart of democracy.

Q: What do you think is the time frame of the forum? Will
it be continuous?

A: For each set of participants, a six month commitment will
be the minimum requested participation. We will keep them in stable groups
together so they get to know each other well. They will also be seeing each
others weblogs, photo blogs and mini-documentaries, so they will have a much
better opportunity to know each other than typical 'town hall' participants.

The project as a whole is continuous. New groups can form as
the initial groups run their course.

Q: Will they talk via an online forum only?

A: As the project grows into television production, we plan
face-to-face meetings.

Q: Are they given topics to talk about?

A: Yes, we schedule topics. However, we can build a tool that
allows outside visitors to the site to suggest and vote on upcoming topics.

For example, the design of the dialogue site
e-thePeople allows users to create their own polls.

By comparison, online polls like the Stanford project tend
to be controlled by the research team. But participants were able to ask questions
of experts on each topic (with the answers supplied by PBS/Newshour guest
panels).

Q: How often do the participants talk?

A: Weekly.

Q: How do you measure the results?

A: The primary presentation would be highlights in video and
text of the week's chats, edited and culled by the project staff into a top
layer. Each group moderator would be responsible, like a broadcast producer,
for highlighting the most compelling exchanges, and uploading to the central
office the day following the discussions. The overall project editor would
then select from the highlights. But visitors to the site will have as much
access as we can readily provide -- you will be able to drill down into the
site and get to the raw dialogue of any group. As far as statistical breakdowns,
as shown in the demo pages -- this is an area to be discussed. There are pluses
and minuses to graphs.

Q: Will the project create reports as it develops?

A: Yes. Beyond that, like any powerful form of media, we would
hope a lot of other people will begin writing reports on it. And not only
professionals or bloggers, but high school classrooms that can make use of
a ready tool to look at America dynamically and track citizen conversations.